Film Review: A Liar's Autobiography (2.5 stars)

2.5 stars

Graham Chapman has long been the odd man out in the Monty Python troupe. Whereas the other five Pythons are either in their seventies or very nearly so, Chapman had the bad sense to die of cancer in 1989. But he gets the last laugh of sorts in A Liar’s Autobiography, the 3D animated adaptation of his 1980 memoirs.

Python fans are the demographic most likely to be drawn in by the concept, though even they may be alternately tickled and let down by the uneven tone. The animation work was divvied up among more than a dozen studios, some of which attempted to duplicate the naughty-paper-cutouts style of Terry Gilliam, while others ran the other way, sometimes into Yellow Submarine territory.

The story is decidedly not a history of Monty Python, which has been done to death in any case. There’s a fair bit of overlap, but the focus of the film is on Chapman’s life. It’s a warts-and-all picture that includes his struggles with alcoholism and his conflicted homosexuality. He says he became “a raging poofter” after college, “but no mincing — a butch one with a pipe.”

He says this in his own voice. The trio of directors use recordings from the audiobook version of Chapman’s memoirs, supplemented with voice-overs from most of the other Pythons, including Michael Palin as Chapman’s father and Terry Jones as his mother. Cameron Diaz plays Sigmund Freud, for reasons that never become clear.

It’s a loving tribute in its own way. Recall the words of John Cleese at Chapman’s memorial in ’89 (excerpted in the film): “Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard … and the reason I feel I should say this is he would never forgive me if I didn’t, if I threw away this glorious opportunity to shock you all on his behalf.” It’s not very kind to David Frost, however, with whom the Pythons had a fractious relationship.

It’s also less than forthcoming about the details of Chapman’s life. Safe to say he was an excellent comic, a committed drinker and a hedonist, and that he died too soon. Python completists will want to add this to their log, but they shouldn’t expect too much — unless they’re expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

A Liar’s Autobiography opened Nov. 16 at Toronto’s Yonge/Dundas cinema.